


vastly uncharted territory

by NightsMistress



Category: Will Grayson Will Grayson - John Green & David Levithan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 07:07:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightsMistress/pseuds/NightsMistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a turn of events that surprises exactly no-one, Tiny made absolutely no arrangements to cleaning up after the musical. </p><p>The two Will Graysons take the opportunity to talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	vastly uncharted territory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).



In a turn of events that surprises exactly no-one, Tiny made absolutely no arrangements to cleaning up after the musical. The auditorium starts to empty and Tiny is about to go out to meet his fans when Jane asks him about what his plans were to clean up afterward. Tiny’s eyes go wild and wide, like a trapped animal, as he groans in loud dismay.

“Afterward? I didn’t think of afterward!” He rakes his hand through his hair, completely ignoring the hiss of _You’ve ruined your perfect hair!_ from Ethan as he clears the larger props from the stage. I notice absurdly that it stands up at all angles now even under the heat of the bright stage lights that I am convinced are going to give me a skin tan just by standing here without stage makeup. Tiny’s hair gel must have set like cement and is going to be about as easy to hose off.

After a sequence of silent eye exchanges between Jane and Gary, it’s left to Jane to corral the backstage crew to clean up the auditorium before the faculty staff close it up. While this takes place, I’m to usher people outside to Tiny and the other performers for congratulations and well-wishing to the accompaniment of the aggressively polyphonic version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow that Jane managed to find somewhere. The internet is truly a wonderful place.

I don’t envy Jane her task, even if it is bossing people around (which she is good at), because all I need to do is point and direct which is well within my skill set. It helps that easily a third of the audience is named ‘Will Grayson’ and so I can just yell “Will Graysons to Doors Five, Seven and Nine, Eleven and Fifteen” and that takes care of that problem. “Tiny Cooper’s Ex Boyfriends to Door Twelve,” also helps.

I notice the other Will Grayson standing to the side with a guy wearing an aggressively musical hipster shirt that must be Gideon. Gideon notices my progress toward them, studies the other Will carefully for a moment before discreetly ducking out through the nearest door. I have no idea what that’s about, but I remember vaguely that Tiny mentioned he had met Gideon at some point. 

“Hey,” I say. Will looks up from his silent examination of the stage with a start.

“I wasn’t sure which door to go through,” Will says. “There didn’t seem an option for Tiny Cooper’s ex boyfriends who are also named Will Grayson.”

“That’s because you’re an outlier,” I say without thinking, and wince immediately after. He doesn’t quite flinch but it looks a close run thing.

“I’m thinking of going by Number Eighteen,” he says with a self-depreciating twist of his lower lip.

“Look,” I say, a little desperately. “Tiny is …” and I run out of words to say. Tiny is a large planet who doesn’t notice that the moons he pulls towards him are irrevocably altered by that gravitational attraction. He wants to be appreciated by people who can barely see him, and I don’t mean that based on his pure largeness which is undeniably large, but in largeness of spirit too. I don’t think I could have written a musical of my life, let alone presented it to a full auditorium full of people who wanted to appreciate me in the terms that I wanted to be appreciated. I don’t think my life is interesting enough to be told.

“Did he tell you you were going to be in it?” I say instead, and the other Will shakes his head.

“No,” he said. “But it’s okay. Eighteen’s a good number. It’s how old you are when you leave.”

I think I know what he meant. Eighteen is how old I’ll be when I go away to college, whether it’s Northwestern or something else entirely. Eighteen is how old you are when you’re able to shed the confining cocoon of adolescence and unfurl your new, still-wet adult wings. Sure, you could fly into a spider’s web on your first flight, but you could not too.

“So,” I say. “Will Grayson to Will Grayson. Did you like the show?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I did.” The smile on his face looks fragile and unpracticed, probably because I have never seen him smile, and his hands are shoved into his pockets as he rocks back on his heels. “I don’t agree with all of it but I don’t think I’m meant to. I’m not the main character in that story.”

He’s not, and neither am I. One day, when Tiny is a famously fabulous musical director or whatever else takes his fancy that week, someone might sit down and write the story of the first musical that Tiny ever wrote, and we’d both be the side characters in that story. Some people are made to be lead characters and some are meant to be hangers on or love interests, and in the story of Tiny Cooper that’s what we would be.

“Maybe we’ll have our own story one day,” I say.

“I doubt that,” he says. “But it was a pleasure meeting you, Will Grayson.”

“And you, Will Grayson.”

I’m not sure what the future will bring. Maybe the only connection that I had with this Will Grayson are identical names and that we know Tiny Cooper, and that our chance meeting was just a random coincidence. But I want to try, not the least because this is someone who arranged a beautiful, affirming thing for his ex-boyfriend and I want that person to be my friend.

“What are you doing next week?”

He blinks. “Uh, nothing other than work?”

“Let’s go to Frenchies.”

The look the other Will Grayson gives me is priceless. “Is this a date?”

“No! It’s just … traditional. Will Grayson meetup at the pornshop has a ring to it.”

He’s silent for a minute too long and I think maybe I’ve lost him. His gaze is going everywhere but at me, but from what I understand of him that’s actually pretty normal behavior.

Then he nods and glances at my face for a second before looking away. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

We shake on it and then he goes to find his friend, while I go and rescue Jane from the perils of diva backstage directors.


End file.
